Sahlgrenska Center for Cancer Research and Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics (Bi.N.D), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
J Extracell Vesicles. 2022 Oct;11(10):e12271. doi: 10.1002/jev2.12271.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been shown to be involved in cell-cell communication and to take part in both physiological and pathological processes. Thanks to their exclusive cargo, which includes proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids from the originating cells, they are gaining interest as potential biomarkers of disease. In recent years, their appealing features have been fascinating researchers from all over the world, thus increasing the number of in vitro studies focused on EV release, content, and biological activities. Cultured cell lines are the most-used source of EVs; however, the EVs released in cell cultures are influenced by the cell culture conditions, such as the use of foetal bovine serum (FBS). FBS is the most common supplement for cell culture media, but it is also a source of contaminants, such as exogenous bovine EVs, RNA, and protein aggregates, that can contaminate the cell-derived EVs and influence their cargo composition. The presence of FBS contaminants in cell-derived EV samples is a well-known issue that limits the clinical applications of EVs, thus increasing the need for standardization. In this review, we will discuss the pros and cons of using FBS in cell cultures as a source of EVs, as well as the protocols used to remove contaminants from FBS.
细胞外囊泡（EVs）已被证明参与细胞间通讯，并参与生理和病理过程。由于它们的独特货物，包括来自起源细胞的蛋白质、脂质和核酸，它们作为疾病的潜在生物标志物引起了人们的兴趣。近年来，它们吸引人的特点吸引了来自世界各地的研究人员，从而增加了专注于 EV 释放、内容和生物活性的体外研究数量。培养的细胞系是最常用的 EV 来源；然而，细胞培养中释放的 EV 受到细胞培养条件的影响，例如使用胎牛血清（FBS）。FBS 是细胞培养基最常用的补充物，但它也是外源性牛 EVs、RNA 和蛋白质聚集体等污染物的来源，这些污染物可能会污染细胞衍生的 EVs，并影响其货物组成。FBS 污染物存在于细胞衍生的 EV 样品中是一个众所周知的问题，限制了 EVs 的临床应用，因此增加了标准化的需求。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论使用 FBS 作为 EVs 来源的优缺点，以及用于从 FBS 中去除污染物的方案。
